Daily Archives: January 2, 2012

Confessions of a Christian Wife

Beginning 2012 With Innocence Lost

New Years day was spent first at home getting ready for church… which we managed to do without any yelling or meltdowns and we only pulled into the parking lot 5 minutes late…
Then at church the last gifts to be studied in my spiritual gifts class were discussed and we left small group to head to “big church” to listen to one of the cutest couples I have ever seen share about their missions adventures in Guatemala.
Then we were off to spend the rest of the day at my in-laws.

My momma-in-law had a copy of The Help, a movie I had not seen but had wanted to, so we popped it in. PG-13 should be fine with the kids running around… right?
I cringed with the first “gd” and hoped there would not be another… there was, but they never fell when the children were in the room (whew).

Then Bekah, tired and not feeling all too wonderful yesterday crawled up in my lap while the movie was playing… in closed-caption I mind you…

Her first question came.
“Momma why can’t she go to the bathroom?”   

So the explanation of the civil rights movement began and as I spoke my child’s beautiful innocent eyes looked at me with utter befuddled confusion. The fact that someone could be treated so horrible simply because of the color of her skin was completely foreign and insane to her. Proof that racism is taught, not natural.

Her next question came.
“But why Momma?” 

My only answer.
“Foolish ignorance and human self-righteousness”

The next lesson my youngest child learned from The Help was just as upsetting to her… and me.

While watching the movie, the time of Minny’s revenge came, and at this time my little one decided to enter the room once again… and at the exact time that (in closed caption) Minny says, “Eat my s**t”. To which I look in horror to my child who is watching (and reading) and then turns to me and says “Momma what’s s**t?” 

Really?!?!

So I have to take my young beautiful innocent child to another room and explain to her what s**t is. I laugh in uncomfortable situations. So now I am trying to explain the seriousness of why we do not use this word without my uncomfortable situation laughter, because in truth my heart is breaking, and I feel like I have failed my child.

She asked, “Momma if it is just another word that people use for poo-poo what’s so bad about it?”
I then have to explain about profanity and what God says in His Word about speaking with these words and how this is not a word we are to use.

 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk,
or coarse jesting, which are not fitting,
but rather giving of thanks.
Ephesians 5:4
Then she erupts in tears.
It hits her that she has just said a bad word and she is horrified.
Her heart is broken and my heart is broken because it was my job to protect her…
I hold her close in my arms and cuddle her up and close and explain to her that it was not her fault and she did not know it was a bad word and that it was going to be okay. Then she says, “I’ll forget it Momma! I forget things I read and hear all the time” 
Then we pray that God would help her forget it and replace it with good words… and though this may seem an insignificant moment to some… it was heart wrenching for her and for me as well… to watch her heart break and to see innocence leaving her before my very eyes.
Oh that all our hearts would break with such horror at the thought and realization of “bad words” coming out of our mouths. That all of us would be so confused and befuddled at the cruelty that comes from the foolish ignorance of self-righteous human beings.
I learn so very much from my children…
Proven Path Ministries

Church Adolescence

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I have one lesson left to complete a Precept Upon Precept study on Spiritual Gifts. I have loved this study. If you are interested in discovering your spiritual gift (and if you are a believer, you really should be) and understanding exactly how it Biblically is to be put into action I highly recommend this study.

This is not a question/answer survey. It will require time and effort to get through it, but when you finish the race what you will discover is freedom, purpose, and understanding… trust me… it’s worth it.

Now concerning spiritual gifts,
brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.
1 Corinthians 12:1

God doesn’t want you to be unaware, Paul does not want you to be unaware, and I do not want you to be unaware… so become aware. However, do not let your awareness come through the opinions and interpretations of man…

You know that when you were pagans,
you were led astray to the mute idols,
however you were led.
1 Corinthians 12:2

Go straight to Scripture.

There are plenty of ideas and imaginations of man attempting to explain and define spiritual gifts according to what fits in their own man made traditions and doctrines… be brave my friend… and be willing to go against the grain if need be… do not continue to be led astray… become aware.

In this study the first three weeks are an overview study of the subject of spiritual gifts and then the next nine weeks you will dig into each individual gift, the last week is a study on love.

 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but do not have love,
I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
 If I have the gift of prophecy,
and know all mysteries and all knowledge;
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing. 
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor,
and if I surrender my body to be burned,
but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3

As I was studying in the overview section of this study the Lord opened my eyes to something that I was surprised that I had not seen before. He has a way of doing that… and I adore Him for it.

As God begins to make us aware of spiritual gifts He uses the human body as an analogy to help us understand. As I was studying this illustration of the body in light of Ephesians 4 and pondering what it means to become to maturity, to go from children to a mature man… my thoughts went to that time period in between that we in our day have termed as “adolescence”.

You know that time.

If you have lived it, you know it.

You don’t recognize it when you are in it… only when it is behind you and you look back… with utter humiliation and head shaking good-griefs…

It’s that time when your father and mother become the most outdated and stupid and old-fashioned people you have ever met. It’s that time when what your friends say and do matters more than what your parents have taught you. It’s that time when you begin to question and rebel against every authority figure around you. It’s that time when you begin test life in a not so good way… more challenge life and those who have given you life and gotten you safely thus far.

As I pondered this and did a little research on adolescence and considered my own days in that dreaded fog of disillusioning it hit me that this is where the body of Christ is at today.

We live in a day when those in the church are questioning the Word of God. We have been questioning and challenging the authority of our Heavenly Father. We have put down His Book and have picked up the books of our peers. We have decided to listen to what our “friends” say and have consider the Word of our Heavenly Father out-dated and old-fashioned and for a different generation.

We have become immature little brats.

It’s time to grow up.

It’s time to get to the point that when we hear the word and advice of our “friends” we go and ask our Heavenly Father what He thinks about it before we follow it.

It’s time for us to hit that point that we look back and say… “you know what maybe Momma and Daddy ain’t as stupid as I thought they were, I might should listen to what they say, and follow what they have already taught me… my way ain’t turned out so good.” 

I had to ask myself what is one of the biggest signs of beginning to reach maturity?

My answer: When we realize that the world does not revolve around me and realize that we have a responsibility in this life and we get busy meeting it.

Church it’s time to grow up.

As a result, we are no longer to be children,
tossed here and there by waves
and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 
but speaking the truth in love,
we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head,
even Christ, from whom the whole body,
being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies,
according to the proper working of each individual part,
causes the growth of the body
for the building up of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:14-16
Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>My Redeemer Lives

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Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you
what will befall you in the days to come.”
Genesis 49:1
 
Jewish tradition speaks of the importance of a shepherd’s staff, and we also have biblical truth to support that tradition. It was the rod and the staff of God that David made mention of in Psalm 23. And we can remember in Genesis 38 that when Tamar asked for a pledge from Judah, his staff was one of her requests, and in Numbers 17:8, God used the budded rod of Aaron to show the sons of Israel that Aaron was his chosen high priest.
 
A shepherd’s staff was as good as DNA, as good as a social security number or driver’s license in our day. Tradition says that the shepherd’s staff held carvings that identified its owner. In this time in history, there were no stores filled with notebook paper for journaling, no computers on which to blog; the shepherd’s carved staff told the stories of his life.
 
Tradition also speaks of the passing down of the staff of the father to the son, a sign to show transfer of the head of the family. Hebrews 11:21 says, “By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped leaning on his staff,” most likely the very same staff that he held in his hand in Genesis 32:10 when he cried, “For with my staff only I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two companies;” quite possibly the very same staff that once belonged to Isaac and once belonged to Abraham.
 
NowJacob,Israel, is about to breathe his last. He has blessed the sons of Joseph and claimed them as his own sons, and now he calls in the other eleven. Traditionally, the firstborn son would become head of the family after the passing of the father, but sometimes that privilege is lost.
 
Jacob blesses Reuben, but Reuben will not receive the ruler’s staff, for in Genesis 35:22, we learned that Reuben greatly dishonored his father by defiling his father’s bed by going into Bilhah.
 
Jacob next blesses Simeon and Levi, but neither of them shall receive the staff, for in anger and in violence and in deception, they slew many in Genesis 34 because of the rape of Dinah and made Jacob odious in the sight of the Canaanite and Perizzite.
 
Jacob then comes to Judah, and he says, “ Judah, your father’s sons shall bow down to you … the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet” (Genesis 49:8, 10). Judah was worthy to receive the staff, and through Judah would come David, and from David, our Savior Jesus Christ. The promised seed of Abraham, would go through Isaac, Jacob, and Judah and would be fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16).
 
In Revelation 5:5, John stands weeping. The elders before the throne of God tell him to “stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” Oh, beloved of God, do you see the beautiful scarlet thread of redemption being woven through the Word of our Elohim?
 
Oh Father,
 
Not only is Christ the Lion, but He is the Lamb who was slain. My Jesus, worthy are You “to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” (Revelation 5:12). Oh Father, You made a promise of redemption in Genesis 3:15, and in Christ that promise was fulfilled. “As for me, I know my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 20:25–27). Oh Father, as Job knows, so I know my Redeemer lives. Yes, my heart faints within me!
 
My Jesus, it’s in Your name I pray,
Amen.
 
Oh precious one, Jacob dies, Judah dies, David dies… but Jesus… oh my friend HE LIVES!